The present invention relates to a high-function heat stable release which strongly adheres to the carrier, offers a highly ink and adhesive wettable surface, stays intact under heat transfer bonding conditions, releases easily, leaves no contamination on the transfer or fabric, and enables durable replication of the release surface finish onto the resultant transfers. Accordingly, the present specification makes specific reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that aspects of the present inventive subject matter are also equally amenable to other like applications.
Printed heat transfer labels are well-known and commonly used to transfer a graphic, such as text or a graphic design, onto an item, such as apparel or merchandise. A heat transfer label is usually pre-printed with a graphic, and then the graphic is transferred from the label to the item using a heated pad or iron or the like. Printing techniques such as gravure printing, offset printing, flexographic printing, screen printing and digital printing all can be used to create a heat transfer label. Typically, the graphic is formed on a web or substrate onto which a release layer is applied. The ink graphic is applied to the release layer, followed by an adhesive. Thus, the adhesive is applied to the top surface of the graphic. When a user then applies the graphic to the item, the label is turned adhesive-side down onto the item and heat is applied to the back of the label substrate to transfer the graphic to the item from the release layer of the label substrate.
Many release materials used in heat transfers, however, lack the thermal stability or heat resistance under the temperature and pressure conditions during heat transfer application to stay intact throughout heat bonding and carrier peel. Such improper release layer often leads to an undesirable surface contamination of the heat transfer decoration. Thus, the release contamination will have the negative effects of covering the ink design, masking the fabric area in contact and various visual appearance changes by moisture exposure or washing. Further, current heat transfer releases are typically wax based which leaves a wax residue on the surface which negatively affects the appearance of heat transferred labels. Furthermore, current non-wax based releases resolve the wax residue issue, but have poor ink coverage or wetting issues and loose ink anchorage problems, such that there is high printing defect count and ink rub-off from the release surface during the printing operation.
The present invention discloses a special heat stable release which strongly adheres to the carrier, offers a highly ink and adhesive wettable surface, stays intact under heat transfer bonding conditions, releases easily, leaves no contamination on the transfer or fabric, and enables durable replication of the release surface finish onto the resultant transfers.